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Messages - Įguia Branca

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1
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Well designed cards
« on: January 28, 2023, 05:13:59 am »
It's interesting to see the Badly Designed Cards thread blow up, while this one is not very well frequented yet. Probably some psychology lesson there ;)

While I think Plunder is very much a mixed bag, there are some absolute gems in there. I really like Landing Party, which reminds me of Tactician and Tide Pools, two other cards I enjoy a lot. First Mate and Taskmaster are really unique and often hard to evaluate. I like that Frigate can really throw a spanner in the works of some engines. King's Cache is fun and, in contrast to King's Court, not broken.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Badly designed cards
« on: January 26, 2023, 03:55:00 pm »
Your last point is, imo, why loot is good.  Plunder as an expansion seems to be bringing back a bit of the simpler times where you can do well by playing a few really big cards.  Of course it has plenty of engine cards too, but the emphasis on big treasures dilutes it a bit, which I think is healthy.
I guess I agree. I just wish it had been achieved in a different way.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Badly designed cards
« on: January 26, 2023, 03:28:49 pm »
Surprised everyone is arguing about bandit instead of mentioning shit like wharf, margrave, etc that are just beyond broken.
Broken or weak cards are explicitly not what this thread is about.

There are many examples of (arguably) suboptimal design in Dominion, most of which have been discussed ad nauseam (Possession, Rebuild, Governor, Swindler, Cultist, Spy and many other slow topdeck attacks and / or filterers). Other than those, I think the card design in Dominion is generally quite good. There are, however, some mechanics and some big picture stuff I dislike:
- Boons, Hexes and Loot; needlessly complex and swingy. Boons and Hexes were pretty unpopular already, why did there need to be Loot? In my opinion, Loot is actually even worse. The most meaningful difference between the Loots is often whether they have +Buy or not. Bad luck in that regard can easily decide a game, depending on how quickly you can get more of them. Apart from that, does the difference between, say, Amphora and Jewels, really justify a randomized 30 card pile you have to carry, get out of the box, shuffle and get familiar with?
- Potion costs (as mentioned by Gherald)
- The explosion of ways to play Action cards in the Buy phase, Treasure cards in the Action phase and Reaction cards just whenever you goddamn please is probably justfied by the amount of design space it uncovers, but there is a real cost with how much it distorts the flow of the game and confuses new players.
- The push of Engines has made Money and Slog games much less common, which is great for many expert players, but not so good for most casual players who don't typically enjoy sitting through 10 minute turns by their opponents. While Slogs and Money usually take more turns, those turns are much shorter and the games are more engaging and manageable. Also, it's now quite rare now to seriously have to decide between playing Engine or Money; Engine is almost always correct if there is a way to draw at all (you may not always have +Buy, but there are now so many gainers that single gain games are borderline exotic).

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: January 26, 2023, 02:49:56 pm »
Since the last few expansions didn't contain much in the way of alt-VP and you took out Silk Road from Hinterlands without replacing it: Is there something you came to dislike about the color green? Is the design space too limited? Do you think green cards are boring? Are you withholding them for a future expansion?

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Badly designed cards
« on: January 26, 2023, 02:39:26 pm »
Always when ive shown new players bandit they bought a whole bunch of bandits and piled out gold. It doesnt matter if they win or lose, a gold gainer in base alone is questionable imo.

I don't think n00bs playing bad strategies and losing makes a game poorly designed.


But cards that encourage n00bs playing bad strategies and losing in the set most noobs come across makes it. I like leprechaun and market square, i dont dislike gold gainers but a straight always goldgainer in base?
So Thief and Treasure Map are also overpowered? Just because new players misevaluate them?
Dude, that is simply not a sound argument.
Nobody said they were overpowered, just criticizing them for misleading new players. Which I don't fully agree with, but...
Dude, don't strawman people.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Plunder is online
« on: December 19, 2022, 02:14:26 pm »
Or Jeweled Egg is the only Loot-giver with no trashing (or poor trashing).
I'm fairly certain they were talking about Looting, the event, not just any old way of gaining Loot.

7
Dominion General Discussion / Re: * Plunder Previews #5: More Stuff *
« on: December 17, 2022, 03:10:59 am »
My own observation: as the number of of Dominion expansions increases (not complaining) ... the probability of an "oblivion"-type ability/mat being introduced from which cards can't ever as easily be regained to anyone's deck ... approaches 1
I doubt it. On the vast majority of boards, cards in the trash are still irretrievable. The few games with Lurker, Graverobber, Rogue, Treasurer or Shaman (arguably Necromancer as well) give a break from the usual. In my opinion, they don't undermine the trash as in, say, Magic the Gathering, where most decks use the graveyard as a resource in one way or another, which then leads to the necessity of an 'oblivion' (which in Magic is also leaky, albeit less so). Unless an expansion with a major theme of resurrection or something is released, such a mat would serve little purpose and would be bad game design in my eyes.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: * Plunder Previews #5: More Stuff *
« on: December 16, 2022, 07:13:48 pm »
Isn't First Mate and Tactician combo too strong?
I guess it's pretty strong, but I'd argue that it has nothing on the combo of, say, King's Court and King's Court. Basically, you need quite a bit of setup and all it does is draw your deck and get some buys and actions. You then have to still discard all the cards you have drawn and draw to six if you want to repeat it next turn. It isn't very conducive to gain & play by itself, doesn't provide it's own payload and is pretty fragile. It's a stronger version of Double Tactician, with a lot of the same limitations and conditions.

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Dominion General Discussion / Your Favorite Expansions
« on: December 16, 2022, 01:39:23 pm »
I thought it would be fun to have a thread where we chat about our favorite expansions. There have probably been threads like this in the long history of this forum, but I went through a quick search and didn't find anything, definitely not anything halfway recent. I'll just give my thoughts and maybe you'd like to join in :)

Dark Ages has a lot of cool unique cards that aren't super oppressive (unless part of a combo), like Poor House, Beggar, Hermit, Market Square, Death Cart, Fortress and especially Rats. I could do without Cultist, Knights and Rebuild, but at least they're not quite as strong as they used to be. All in all, Dark Ages has the highest ratio of cards that make it into my heavily curated box.

Renaissance has a somewhat subtle megaturn theme, which I enjoy a great deal. The cards are mostly on the simple side, which is a very good thing, especially because I tend to play with casual players who don't know all of the cards by heart. On average, Renaissance has the best art in my book, which is fitting, I guess. The majority of projects are also bangers. If there is anything to complain about, I'm not the biggest fan of the artifacts, though I do get the appeal of having something to fight over.

Menagerie has Ways and Exile, which I both love. Alliance and Populate are over the top in a very good way. Snowy Village is probably my favorite village. If I had to criticize something, it'd be that some of the events are a bit boring (Ride, Demand, Bargain and Enclave come to mind).

Which expansion(s) do you like best? Why?

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: * Plunder Previews #5: More Stuff *
« on: December 16, 2022, 04:09:08 am »
I needed a moment to get there on Taskmaster, at first glance I thought it was a strictly worse Fishing Village. I don't think it's obvious from the text that it can stay out multiple turns.

I think I will prefer Shaman to Ambassador, as far as fun is concerned.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Semi-Interesting Dominion Moments Thread
« on: February 16, 2022, 08:50:18 am »
One of those extremely dumb games against Lord Rattington where I'm messing around trying to make something vaguely interesting happen and realize I'm actually losing badly to straight BM. But then manage to turn it around like a barge after 33 turns for the win.

Quote
Cuzz:
6 Golds, 5 Estates, 6 Duchies, 2 Provinces, a Steward, Dame Anna, Dame Josephine, Dame Natalie, Sir Bailey, Sir Destry, Sir Martin, Sir Michael, Sir Vander, 3 Soothsayers, 9 Hirelings, 6 Werewolves, 10 Border Guards, 10 Patrons and 8 Hunting Lodges

Lord Rattington:
5 Curses, 5 Coppers, 6 Estates and 6 Provinces

I'm counting 37 points for both of you. Did Lord Rattingdon end the game? Seems unlikely given the state of his deck and the Provice pile being empty. Were you just so happy with the tie that you mistook it for a win or am I missing something?

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I had a Rats + Seaway + Tower board yesterday with a 5/2 split. My plan was to Seaway a Rats, get 20 Rats asap, then churn through the Curses and finally the Coppers, getting four or sometimes five junk cards per turn and the last 21 Coppers in one fell swoop. I lost to Wharf/Money, but it was quite fun. I'm pretty sure I would have won if it would have been Tomb instead of Tower. Or a weaker money enabler.

13
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Project - card parallels
« on: April 24, 2019, 04:49:07 am »
I would in most cases prefer Lost Arts to Barracks as it gives you the extra action exactly when needed.
Apart from potential edge cases, this is never true. Barracks gives you the extra action at the best moment possible, which is at the start of your turn. The big advantage of Lost Arts is that it can give you multiple actions per turn. Sometimes the thing you put Lost Arts on is the only terminal you want to play, in which case it doesn't matter, but as far as timing is concerned, Lost Arts is never better than Barracks.

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Dominion Articles / Re: Canal
« on: February 21, 2019, 05:09:23 am »
It might also be worth pointing out that, while Remodel benefits from Canal, it's not so clear cut with Remake:

Trashing Copper into Estate < Trashing Copper into nothing < Trashing Copper into Border Guard

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: number of setup combinations
« on: January 25, 2019, 08:37:41 am »
I don't even want to think about how many different MtG decks you could construct.

The answer is 2: Aggro or Control.
That's like saying there are only two different Dominion boards (engine and money).

16
Treasure Map + City Gate is pretty neat. You are not only guaranteed to connect the Maps early on, you can also defer one of the four Golds to the next turn.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Trash Illustrator(s) ?
« on: January 08, 2019, 01:38:08 pm »
Some people would call the works of Maura Kalusky trashy.

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If you have an Artisan in hand and Scepter in the kingdom, you can play the Artisan to gain n Scepters where n is your handsize.

With $1 of cost reduction and a Sculptor you can gain 10 Scepters.

And as much Villagers
Also interesting with Crown. If you have any cost reduction and Crown a Sculptor, you can empty both Crowns and Sculptors instantly, unless one pile is more than two copies lower than the other.
With cost reduction and a +Action token or Academy or Champion, you can empty the Sculptors.

19
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: December 02, 2018, 04:55:26 am »
Why can't Miser reserve non-Copper treasures?

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Masterpiece / Annex

A weak card and a weak event combine for some serious points as long as you have two buys. One point per coin (plus a little bit of debt) is incredible value in a province game, and you never need more than two buys.
Triumph, that is. Doing stuff is just not what Annex does.

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Alms + Workshop/Ironworks/Armory/Duplicate + Silk Road/Gardens
A while ago I had Alms + Bridge + Silk Road. I opened double Bridge, then got Estate + Duchy on Bridge turns and otherwise Silk Road. I think my Silk Roads were worth 5 by the end of the game.

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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Tavern Mat Madness
« on: September 22, 2017, 01:39:23 am »
Picking up any number of Wine Merchants is worth an additional +2 $ at best, and storing them on the mat is a lot worse than storing Bridges because there is less megaturn potential.
play 10 Wine Merchants, play Native Village to put them in your hand, play 10 Wine Merchants, play Native Village, ...
400 coins, 100 buys. With Lost Arts, Peasant, or Champion, this is not impossible. Still weak?
First, I never said it's weak. Second, playing 10 Bridges or 10 Goons is just as good as playing 100 Wine Merchants. Third, I already adressed this issue in this thread. If you were to change this, you would have to change Wine Merchant so that it puts itself on the mat when discarded from play, instead of immediately.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion Confessions
« on: September 21, 2017, 10:05:56 am »
I have to confess I was unaware that Awaclus is capable of humor.

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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Tavern Mat Madness
« on: September 21, 2017, 08:38:56 am »
As you pointed out, Native Village becomes weaker with Island. It also makes Miser not work. It would make a overpowered combo with Wine Merchant (but then again Wine Merchant would also be far too good in combo with Haven, Gear or Save).

About why this is broken, just pick the Wine Merchant combos. Instead of being weaker than "+$4, +1 Buy" Wine Merchant is now stronger as you can now sometimes put it in your hand without having to draw it.
First of all, I would argue that having some strong synergies between otherwise comparatively weak cards can be very fun. On the other hand, having each Native Village be +8 $, +2 Buys is probably too much, so I agree there. I still think it would be fine if Wine Merchant said 'When you discard this from play, put it on your tavern mat'. Would still be very good in a sloggish strategy, while engines wouldn't profit quite as much.

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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Tavern Mat Madness
« on: September 21, 2017, 03:36:57 am »
It's simple: all cards (except for Native Village which shouldn't be changed) would become stronger.

Wine Merchant and Miser would potentially become too good in the presence of other of these changed cards.
I don't think this is true. Some of the cards in question would become stronger in combination, but I don't see anything broken. Why do you think Native Village shouldn't be changed?

Having a chance to put reserve cards on the mat with Native Village is definitely not overpowered, it makes it the equivalent of +1 card, +3 actions at the very best. If you mat Duplicate or Distant Lands, that is. But having those cards on the mat heavily disincentivizes you from ever picking up. Similarily, Island - Native Village would clearly antisynergize. I can see how matting cards for Miser or Pirate Ship could be strong, but then again, picking up would make those cards completely useless, so you're stuck with a Necropolis for most of the game

Picking up any number of Wine Merchants is worth an additional +2 $ at best, and storing them on the mat is a lot worse than storing Bridges because there is less megaturn potential.

Haven, Gear and Save wouldn't behave any different unless there were other cards in the Kingdom that interacted with the Tavern mat.
After thinking about that, if there are other tavern mat cards in the kingdom, these could easily cause problems. Namely, their interaction with Native Village is quite strong. You could manipulate your tavern mat almost at will, picking up the stronger cards you matted with Native Village and matting all the junk. You can already do that if there are topdeck interaction cards, but you have to be careful and get somewhat lucky to connect those. With Haven etc. it's just too easy.


Buffing Pirate Ship such that it quasi-plays the treasures you picked up from the trash (or, simpler: if an opponent trashes a Silver/Gold, put 2/3 Coin tokens on your Pirate Ship mat) is a good idea independent of "combine all mats into the Tavern mat" idea.
This is actually not what I intended. Playing the treasures from the mat would be highly confusing. Giving Tokens based on the kind of card(s) you trashed is wordy and wouldn't really work with kingdom treasures. As far as tweaks go, I prefer:

Original Pirate Ship:
Choose one: +1 $ per Coin token on your Pirate Ship mat; or each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes one of those Treasures that you choose, and discards the rest, and then if anyone trashed a Treasure you add a Coin token to your Pirate Ship mat.

My version:
Choose one: +1 $ per Treasure on your Tavern mat; or each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes one of those Treasures that you choose, and discards the rest, then you may gain a Treasure from the trash onto your Tavern mat.

This is still a stronger version, since, as long as there are treasures in the trash, you build the payload even if the attack whiffs.

During development of Adventures, there was a card that let you put any card you gained on your Tavern mat. I think it was a Reserve that you called when you gained a card, to put that card on the mat. It was cute with other Reserve cards, but mostly you'd just use it to put all your Victory cards on the mat. That didn't end up being good times.
Ya, that's pretty much why the Haven variant thing might be too strong. Other than that, I didn't suggest something like that, so I'm not sure where you're coming from. Native Village is still random most of the time.

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